World Cup fever seen at All England Club

Associated Press

Published
4:59 pm PDT, Saturday, July 7, 2018

LONDON — Game, set and match England. Cheers went up around the home of lawn tennis Saturday as news filtered through to Wimbledon that Dele Alli had given England a 2-0 lead over Sweden in the World Cup quarterfinals.

Ushers letting fans in and out of Court 18 momentarily vacated their gates for a triumphant embrace, as England’s “it’s coming home” chant echoed — politely — around the grounds.

England won 2-0 to return to the World Cup semifinals for the first time since 1990.

The World Cup wasn’t screened for spectators at the All England Club while the Grand Slam tennis tournament was in progress, but updates were spread by fans watching or listening to the match on their cell phones. There were also some uncharacteristically empty seats at Centre Court, presumably from fans who opted to watch soccer.

There were no such issues for the tennis players. Liam Broady tweeted from the Wimbledon Players’ Lounge to show that the soccer had taken priority on the screens in there.

Among the Centre Court spectators who didn’t leave to watch the soccer was English soccer legend Bobby Charlton. A guest in the Royal Box, the 1966 World Cup winner resisted the temptation to vacate his seat.

Belgian’s goal: Alison Van Uytvanck is hoping her run to the second week of Wimbledon can give young gay people more confidence.

The Belgian, who in March said that she was in a relationship with another woman, advanced to the fourth round at the All England Club for the first time with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Anett Kontaveit.

The 47th-ranked Van Uytvanck had only won one match in her four previous main-draw appearances at Wimbledon, but announced her presence with a second-round victory over defending champion Garbiñe Muguruza on Thursday.

“I didn’t come out because I wanted to be a role model,” Van Uytvanck said. “I’m just happy that I could hopefully get younger people to have confidence to just come out.”

A complaint: Novak Djokovic got into a bit of a two-sided argument with the crowd during his 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 win over home favorite Kyle Edmund after he was booed following a time violation in the third set. He responded by blowing kisses into the stands.

“I thought the crowd’s reaction after that (time violation) was quite unnecessary,” Djokovic said. “A couple (of) guys really, you know, pretending they were coughing and whistling while I was bouncing the ball more or less to the end of the match at that end where I received the time violation.”

It was the third time Djokovic faced a British player at Wimbledon. He lost to Andy Murray in the 2013 final and beat James Ward in 2016. But this was the first time Djokovic got a reaction like this from the crowd.

“The crowd was very fair when I played against Andy. Obviously they support their player,” he said. “But today there was just some people, especially behind that end where I got the time violation, they kept on going, they kept on going, provoking. That’s something that I can tolerate for a little bit, but I’m going to show that I’m present as well, that they can’t do whatever they feel like doing.”